UK parliament set for busy autumn as summer recess ends

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Sir Keir Starmer’s government will crack on with its “packed legislative agenda”, a senior UK cabinet minister has pledged, as parliament returns on Monday after the shortest summer recess in decades.

Lucy Powell, leader of the House of Commons, said the prime minister and his cabinet were ready to “roll up our sleeves” in order to “build a better Britain” as MPs head back to Westminster following a one-month break.

“This new Labour government is full of energy, full of ideas and full of drive to deliver our mandate for change. That’s why we’ve announced a packed legislative agenda focused on the people’s priorities,” she said. 

New legislation to be laid before the Commons this week will include one bill to bring rail operators gradually into public ownership, and another bill promising a new “fiscal lock” aimed at barring a repeat of former UK prime minister Liz Truss’s “mini” Budget.

Labour’s agenda also includes a package of employment reforms and a crackdown on water companies’ environmental performance. 

On Thursday MPs will debate the second reading of the Great British Energy bill, which will create a new state-owned energy company.

Meanwhile in the House of Lords there will be a second reading of the Crown Estate bill, which gives the British monarchy’s legacy portfolio of land and property holdings new powers to borrow and invest. 

The typically lengthy summer recess was curtailed this year on the basis that the new Labour government, elected in early July, wanted to proceed apace with its legislative programme.

Starmer later cancelled his own holiday in order to deal with the riots that swept the country soon after he won power. But there will be another lengthy recess from mid-September as the parties go off for their annual conferences. 

In Scotland, the first business of Holyrood’s new term is scheduled for Tuesday, when finance secretary Shona Robison is expected to outline a series of spending cuts to match the funding squeeze emanating from London.

On Wednesday John Swinney, first minister and Scottish National party leader, will unveil the much-anticipated programme for government.

The plan will be closely watched as a blueprint for the SNP’s attempt to recover from its bruising defeat in the general election and to prepare for Holyrood elections in May 2026.

Northern Ireland’s Stormont Assembly also returns from recess on Monday but analysts say it has little to show for itself seven months into its revival after a two-year Brexit hiatus.

The power-sharing executive has passed a budget but has yet to come up with a programme for government addressing the crises in public services.

“Thus far, the toughest decisions have been avoided,” Ann Watt, director of think-tank Pivotal, said in a report published on Monday.

“One of the major factors behind the dire condition of Northern Ireland’s public services today is the past failure to make longer-term strategic decisions that involved difficult choices. This pattern cannot continue.”

Claire Hanna confirmed on Sunday that she would run to be leader of the small nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party.

The MP for South Belfast and Mid Down said people were “losing faith that Stormont and politics more generally will deliver for them. They live with failing public services and a politics driven by division, dysfunction and pettiness.”

She declared after Foyle MP Colum Eastwood announced last week that he was quitting after nine years at the helm.

Northern Ireland’s political institutions — in which the region’s traditional nationalist and unionist communities share power — have regularly collapsed in the past quarter-century.

Deirdre Heenan, professor of social policy at Ulster University, said the lack of progress had “to be framed within the system of government that is not working. The choice in Northern Ireland is between bad government and no government.”

The Welsh Senedd is in recess until September 15.